Maxima Function
ctaylor ()
The ctaylor function truncates its argument by converting
it to a Taylor-series using taylor, and then calling
ratdisrep. This has the combined effect of dropping terms
higher order in the expansion variable ctayvar. The order
of terms that should be dropped is defined by ctaypov; the
point around which the series expansion is carried out is specified
in ctaypt.
As an example, consider a simple metric that is a perturbation of the Minkowski metric. Without further restrictions, even a diagonal metric produces expressions for the Einstein tensor that are far too complex:
(%i1) load(ctensor); (%o1) /share/tensor/ctensor.mac (%i2) ratfac:true; (%o2) true (%i3) derivabbrev:true; (%o3) true (%i4) ct_coords:[t,r,theta,phi]; (%o4) [t, r, theta, phi] (%i5) lg:matrix([-1,0,0,0],[0,1,0,0],[0,0,r^2,0], [0,0,0,r^2*sin(theta)^2]); [ - 1 0 0 0 ] [ ] [ 0 1 0 0 ] [ ] (%o5) [ 2 ] [ 0 0 r 0 ] [ ] [ 2 2 ] [ 0 0 0 r sin (theta) ] (%i6) h:matrix([h11,0,0,0],[0,h22,0,0],[0,0,h33,0],[0,0,0,h44]); [ h11 0 0 0 ] [ ] [ 0 h22 0 0 ] (%o6) [ ] [ 0 0 h33 0 ] [ ] [ 0 0 0 h44 ] (%i7) depends(l,r); (%o7) [l(r)] (%i8) lg:lg+l*h; [ h11 l - 1 0 0 0 ] [ ] [ 0 h22 l + 1 0 0 ] [ ] (%o8) [ 2 ] [ 0 0 r + h33 l 0 ] [ ] [ 2 2 ] [ 0 0 0 r sin (theta) + h44 l ] (%i9) cmetric(false); (%o9) done (%i10) einstein(false); (%o10) done (%i11) ntermst(ein); [[1, 1], 62] [[1, 2], 0] [[1, 3], 0] [[1, 4], 0] [[2, 1], 0] [[2, 2], 24] [[2, 3], 0] [[2, 4], 0] [[3, 1], 0] [[3, 2], 0] [[3, 3], 46] [[3, 4], 0] [[4, 1], 0] [[4, 2], 0] [[4, 3], 0] [[4, 4], 46] (%o12) done
However, if we recompute this example as an approximation that is
linear in the variable l, we get much simpler expressions:
(%i14) ctayswitch:true; (%o14) true (%i15) ctayvar:l; (%o15) l (%i16) ctaypov:1; (%o16) 1 (%i17) ctaypt:0; (%o17) 0 (%i18) christof(false); (%o18) done (%i19) ricci(false); (%o19) done (%i20) einstein(false); (%o20) done (%i21) ntermst(ein); [[1, 1], 6] [[1, 2], 0] [[1, 3], 0] [[1, 4], 0] [[2, 1], 0] [[2, 2], 13] [[2, 3], 2] [[2, 4], 0] [[3, 1], 0] [[3, 2], 2] [[3, 3], 9] [[3, 4], 0] [[4, 1], 0] [[4, 2], 0] [[4, 3], 0] [[4, 4], 9] (%o21) done (%i22) ratsimp(ein[1,1]); 2 2 4 2 2 (%o22) - (((h11 h22 - h11 ) (l ) r - 2 h33 l r ) sin (theta) r r r 2 2 4 2 - 2 h44 l r - h33 h44 (l ) )/(4 r sin (theta)) r r r
This capability can be useful, for instance, when working in the weak field limit far from a gravitational source.